Juliet Stollop
Juliet Stollop works as kitchen help in the night kitchen at Unseen University but during the novel Unseen Academicals becomes a fashion model. She is a childhood friend and neighbour of Glenda Sugarbean, living with her father and brothers in the Dolly Sisters neighbourhood of Ankh Morpork. She falls in love with Trevor Likely, who works at Unseen University and is a future football star. By the end of the novel they are clearly making plans for their future together. She is considered so beautiful and even her most casual movements are filled with such grace that the Unseen University wizards stop bickering when she pushes the dessert trolley into the room... and not as is usually the case because the food has arrived. Their minds simply wander off into blind reverie and they feel the urge to write poems - likely romantic. . She is even the unwitting subject of the painting Beauty Arising from the Pease Pudding Cart Attended by Cherubs Carrying Hot Dogs and Pies (the artist inspired by her ascent during a football match). Juliet's 'apparent' Achilles' heel is her "sweet, empty head". She 'appears' not to be the brightest girl, and her elocution leaves a lot to be desired. Glenda worried that if she got new ideas, "there was such a lot of room in there for them to bounce around and do damage". However, over the course of the novel it becomes apparent that this first impression is wrong. Juliet makes very insightful and creative comments to her friend Glenda throughout the novel (which Glenda initially finds particularly unnerving),especially during Glenda's pursuit of Mr. Nutt. In fact, the more Glenda allows Juliet to make her own decisions, the more Juliet steps up to the challenge. During in the novel, she becomes a fashion model and superstar. She is discovered by Madame Sharn of Shatta's fashion house and assumes the guise of a tall dwarf with false beard to model Micromail on their fashion runways. After the show she introduces herself to some of the assembled guests as 'Jools' (breaking the ice with a call of "Wotcher!"), which is transformed by the gossip of the local papers into her stage name, 'Jewels'. She only models once during the book, but was so resplendent that everyone clamoured to find out more about her after she vanished back to the night kitchen. It is implied that she will continue with her modelling career. There are obvious parallels between her character and Juliet in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and the 1957 Bernstein/Sondheim musical West Side Story, where the plot of Romeo and Juliet is updated to warring city street gangs''. '' She is a Dolly Sisters football team supporter who falls in love with Trevor Likely, a Dimwell Old Pals supporter and son of football star Dave Likely, who in turn becomes a football star himself - star crossed lovers from rival 'firms'. The Dolly Sisters and the Dimmers are referred to as "two teams alike in villainy." ''which is a paraphrase of the prologue to "Romeo and Juliet" "Two households, both alike in dignity..." Later in the novel, Glenda and Mr Nutt go to the theatre to witness a production by the Dolly Sisters Players, called ''Starcrossed, written by Hwel. It is described as one of the great romantic plays of the last fifty years, making it roughly the same age as West Side Story. Romeo and Juliet are usually referred to as 'the star crossed lovers'. Juliet's friend Glenda clearly has elements of Juliet's nurse in her character although she is more naive. She reads dime store romances but doesn't understand the meaning behind a lot of the innuendo in these cheap novels, whereas Juliet's nurse would never have missed a trick. Both however live vicariously through their "young charges" (although Pratchett's Juliet is the really same age as Glenda, the latter is mistaken for her mother) and are extremely solicitous of their welfare. The stabbing of Mr. Nutt in the street has parallels in the murder of Mercutio and Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, ''and Riff and Bernardo in ''West Side Story. Pratchett's Romeo and Juliet theme is also interwoven with the old fairy tale Cinderella ''who was confined to an existence of catering to her stepmother and sisters by the hearth. Juliet and Glenda work in a kitchen, the hearth of a more modern home, and Juliet is confined to an existence of catering to her father and brothers. Glenda comments at one point that the two of them were busy all day 'cleaning the ovens'. To emphasis this in case anyone missed it, Pratchett has Pepe say to Glenda, "I mean, what is this? ''Emberella? The wand has been waved, the court is cheering, a score of handsome princes are waiting to sign up for just a sniff of her slipper, and you want her to go back to work making pumpkins?" (Embers and cinders being synonymous). When the newspapers are searching for the mysterious Jools, Glenda thinks, "They just haven't read their fairy stories.....If you want to find a beauty, you look for her in the ashes." Juliet asks her, "Do you think they'll let me in on the banquet." Both are obvious references to Cinderella. There are parallels between Juliet and the character of Eliza in Pygmalion, on which the musical My Fair Lady was based. Eliza is the subject of an attempt to pass off a flower girl as a duchess by, at first, simply teaching her to speak like one, and Juliet is the subject of an attempt (which was rather more successful) to pass an uncultured kitchen maid off as a mystery dwarf fashion model by adding a beard. Pratchett emphasizes this on the horse/bus ride in search of Mr. Nutt when Glenda comments to Juliet that it would be advantageous for her to learn how to speak more eloquently: "You don't have to sound like--" and the bus driver interrupts with, "my fare, lady?" Finally, at the end of the novel when she rises into the air with Trevor, shining like gold there is a similarity to the the Jules Rimet Trophy for the World Cup winner and the figure of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. which has a golden figure of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory rising into the air on it. Trev & Juliet are the Discworld's "Posh & Becks" (Victoria 'Posh Spice" and David Beckham) but the pairing of a glamorous actress or model and a top sports star is common throughout the pro sports world, from football (both soccer and North American), to hockey, golf and baseball. The British press coined the term "WAG" - the ''W'ives 'A'nd 'G'irlfriends' in connection with football but the term is now applied to sports figures in general throughout the sporting world. Stereotypically, WAGS are incredibly glamorous but also seen as incredibly vacuous, just like Juliet who is clearly Discworld's first WAG. Category:Characters Category:Females Category:Humans